I'm a big fan of Career Mode as a solo experience (I love it) but I absolutely understand the driver behind people wanting to connect and compete with their friends in the FIFA management arena as well. FIFA's suite of licensed clubs is exhaustive, but that doesn't mean there aren't other teams out there who are just as dear to people's hearts, and who deserve to be apart of Career Mode too (that or Knob-end United). And that's why you guys want the ability to create your own club, so that you can take them through Career Mode's management journey, creating your very own rags to riches style tale.  

 

We get a few new tricks every year from EA, but we don’t think a custom skill creator is beyond the realms of possibility. Give us a catalogue of ‘parts’ – step overs, feints, rolls and that sort of thing – and let us chain them together to create something exciting and/or completely ridiculous. You could even name it after yourself, and share it with others to use on their own created pros. The new Tactical Defending system aims to change the approach to defending by placing equal importance on positioning, intercepting passes and tackling. 

 

When defending there will be more of an emphasis on slowing attackers down and containing them, and pressuring them into making mistakes. This is intended to be a more manual form of defending, requiring greater timing and precision when compared to the defensive "press" system used in previous FIFA games. The old system, now dubbed "legacy defending", where a button press causes an AI player to home in on the player in possession of the ball, can still be used offline, and in online friendlies and custom unranked matches.

 

The twelve women’s teams included in FIFA 17 were a very welcome addition, but with the women’s game really hitting the mainstream now, we’d love to see EA shell out on some official licenses for women’s leagues. And dare we say, that would open up the possibility of a women’s Career Mode as well, where you could either take on a professional playing career or lead your club and country to glory from the touchline.

 

For those of us who play against the CPU, a pattern emerges pretty quickly. They’ll play fairly neutral for 70 minutes, at which point they’ll get very aggressive if they’re behind or very defensive if ahead. That’s fine and all, but it’s not exactly varied, and it doesn’t make any allowance for different teams playing differently. We know that FIFA’s AI is capable of mixing things up tactically, so why not have different teams and managers taking different approaches?

 

The aim remains the same score against the computer or human opponent. How much of that experience can improve depends on the technology available and new features, each title brings. When the PS4 and Xbox One were launched in November 2013, FIFA 17 was made entirely on the new Ignite Engine. This engine was not utilized on previous-gen consoles, PS3 and Xbox 360. Now that is one reason to invest in a brand new FIFA title. The new engine offers improved physics, player reaction, controls and animations. The obvious improvements are mainly graphical, which we saw in all FIFA titles starting from FIFA 17.